Chapter 3

Nessie went to her locker after the school day ended. She opened it and put away the rest of the textbooks she had gotten.

"Hey Vanessa," Estella said with a smile as she started to open her own locker.

"Hey Stella," Nessie said smiling back.

"So, what do you think of our school after your first day?" Estella asked, p0lacing her own books in her locker.

"I like it. It's bigger than my last school. And mostly everyone seems really nice," Nessie said as she pulled out her bag and closed her locker.

"That's good. So how was your first day?" Estella asked. She closed her locker and slipped on her bag.

"Pretty good. Thanks for introducing me to your lunch table."

"Oh you're welcome. Hey do you want to come over today? Some other people are," Estella said as her and Nessie started to walk towards the stairs. "And my parents won't care if one more person comes."

"Thanks Stella. I'll ask Jake," Nessie said, giving Estella a big smile. "I'm sure he'll say yes." Nessie and Estella walked down the stairs to the first floor. They walked out the door and into the parking lot. "There he is. You want to meet him?"

"Sure," Estella said following Nessie to a sporty, black car.

"Hey Jake," Nessie said. Jacob was sitting in the car with the window down and the music on.

"Hey Nessie," Jacob said, turning down the radio.

"This is Stella," Nessie said pulling Estella to where Jacob would see her.

"Hello," Estella said with a little wave and a smile.

"This is my Uncle Jake," Nessie said gesturing to Jacob.

"Hi Stella, I'm glad to see Nessie already made a friend," Jacob said smiling back.

"Some of the kids from school are going over to Stella's and she wants to know if I can too," Nessie said to Jacob.

"I live close to the school so we were all just going to walk," Estella added.

"I guess. Just call me and tell me when to pick you up," Jacob said. He was glad that Nessie had made friends so quickly.

"Okay. I'll call or text you to let you know," Nessie said leaning in the window. "Bye Jake. Love you." She gave him a kiss on the cheek then straightened up.

"Love you too Nessie. Have fun," Jacob said as he started the car.

"Everyone's meeting at the picnic tables," Estella said.

"Okay," Nessie and Estella started to walk towards the picnic tables.

"Hey guys," Whitney said with a smile when Estella and Nessie walked up.

"Hi Whitney," Nessie said smiling back.

"Let's get going," Estella said. She walked over to Sam who put his arm around her waist. Mark slid his arm around Whitney's shoulders as they all started to walk. Josh was joking with two girls that Nessie remembered from lunch. The one whose hair was brown underneath and blonde on top was named Sarah and the Asian girl was named Liz. Austin came up behind Nessie and lightly tickled her sides. Nessie jumped with a squeal. She turned around and saw Austin laughing.

"Austin don't do that!" Nessie giggled. Austin smiled his charming smile and continued to laugh.

"I wanted to know if you were ticklish," Austin teased.

"Well I am," Nessie said giggling. "Are you?"

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not," he said. He gave Nessie a teasing smile. Nessie giggled again and smiled her best smile.

"Well sometime I'll have to find out." Nessie knew she was flirting and even though she had only just met Austin he seemed nice and sweet. Like the kind of guy she could like. Plus it didn't hurt that he was really cute.

"So how was your first day?" Austin asked.

"Oh pretty good. This school is bigger than any of the other ones I've been to," Nessie said, still smiling.

"How many have you been to?" Austin asked.

"Well since kindergarten I've been to," Nessie said, pausing to think about it, "about six or seven."

Six or seven schools?" Austin said shocked. "That's a lot."

"My Uncle Jake and me move around a lot," Nessie said with a shrug. "I already really like this school though so hopefully we'll stay here for awhile."

"I hope so," Austin said, giving Nessie his charming smile again. Nessie giggled and blushed a little.

"You're not cold are you?" Austin asked when a little breeze blew by.

"No I'm fine," Nessie said. Then she realized what he was doing and said, "Well maybe a little bit."

"Here," Austin said as he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her a little closer to him. Nessie smiled to herself. She and Austin talked about different things the rest of the way to Estella's house.

"We're here!" Estella said in a sing-song voice when they reached her house and she opened the door.